"I'm going to the subjugation, Reiner."
The words hadn't even fully left Cherion's mouth before the world inside his bedroom seemed to grind to a violent, screeching halt. Reiner was arranging the vase when that sentence made him stop cold. His hand stayed suspended in the air like a glitch in a video game. Then, with a slowness that felt almost painful to watch, he retracted his arm and began to scratch at his ear with a look of such profound, squinty-eyed confusion that Cherion almost felt bad.
Almost.
"Apologize, My Lord," Reiner began, his voice strained through a polite, customer-service smile that didn't quite reach his panicked eyes. "But it seems the bathwater that got into my ear this morning is playing absolute havoc with my sensory perception. Truly. I'm hearing things that shouldn't exist in a sane world. Could you repeat that? BecauseI just heard you say you're going to 'subjugate', which, as far as I'm aware, is literally impossible."
